The Dying Night
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The Dying Night is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the July 1956 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and was reprinted in the 1959 collection Nine Tomorrows, the 1968 collection Asimov's Mysteries and the 1973 collection The Best of Isaac Asimov.
Three astronomers, who have been working on the Moon, Mercury and the asteroid Ceres, meet for the first time in ten years at a convention on Earth. They also meet a former colleague of theirs who had to stay on Earth, because of illness. He claims to have invented a mass-transference/teleportation device, but dies under suspicious circumstances before he can demonstrate the device to his friends.
As the victim's former classmates, presumed to have been motivated by jealousy, they are under suspicion and are questioned by another scientist, who has seen the device demonstated. In the course of his investigation, a photographic record of a research paper by the deceased scientist describing his theory is discovered, but is found to have been ruined through exposure to sunlight.
When none of the suspects admits any guilt, they are invited to meet Wendell Urth, an eccentric scientist who has had success in investigating crimes. He identifies the guilty astronomer as the one who has been working at the Mercurian observatory. The key to the solution of the mystery lies in the idea (at the time of writing believed to be an astronomical fact) that Mercury has one face always pointing away from the Sun. The guilty party hid the photographic film in a place where it was vulnerable to damage by sunlight because he subconsciously expected the night to last forever.
Since the story was written, it has been discovered that the tidal locking of Mercury's rotation does not in fact result in a permanently dark hemishere, and Asimov was careful to ensure that this was noted when the story appeared in anthologies printed after this advance in scientific knowledge.
| Nine Tomorrows |
| I Just Make Them Up, See! | Rejection Slips | Profession | The Feeling of Power | The Dying Night | I'm in Marsport Without Hilda | The Gentle Vultures | All the Troubles of the World | Spell My Name with an S | The Last Question | The Ugly Little Boy |
| Asimov's Mysteries |
| The Singing Bell | The Talking Stone | What's in a Name? | The Dying Night | Pâté de Foie Gras | The Dust of Death | A Loint of Paw | I'm in Marsport Without Hilda | Marooned Off Vesta | Anniversary | Obituary | Star Light | The Key | The Billiard Ball |
| The Best of Isaac Asimov |
| Marooned Off Vesta | Nightfall | C-Chute | The Martian Way | The Deep | The Fun They Had | The Last Question | The Dead Past | The Dying Night | Anniversary | The Billiard Ball | Mirror Image |
